Corey Simon, DPT, PhD, associate professor, Duke Doctor of Physical Therapy Division, leads a collaborative pilot initiative funded by the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center – National Coordinating Center. This project aims to enhance geriatric pain research through innovative data-sharing methods in partnership with Mount Sinai, Yale, and Johns Hopkins universities. Dr. Simon’s Duke collaborators include Susan Nicole Hastings, MD, from the Department of Medicine, and Stephanie Eucker, MD, PhD, from the Department of Emergency Medicine.
The project, titled "Federated Evaluation of Data to Enhance Pain Research among Adults in Later Life" (FEDERAL) addresses the pressing challenge of sharing and pooling data from chronic pain studies involving older adults. Chronic pain disproportionately affects older adults and heightens their risk for falls, disability, and other serious health issues. Data sharing and pooling are crucial to advancing science and clinical implementation; however, health system ownership and PHI restrictions make data pooling complex, time-consuming, and cost-prohibitive.
In contrast to traditional methods, FEDERAL will utilize ‘federated evaluation,’ an approach where identifiable data – which stays at corresponding institutions – is transformed into deidentified and standardized mapped data using shared statistical code. In collaboration with the Duke Center for Aging and Duke Pepper Center, the Duke team will develop and refine a standard data model (CDM) using existing Duke studies. The resulting CDM will then be shared with collaborating institutions to test the feasibility of transforming local and remote source data into standardized mapped data.
Successful completion of FEDERAL will provide valuable preliminary data for a subsequent R01 proposal to validate and subsequently expand the CDM network. The overarching goal of this research line is to streamline pain research in the clinic to optimize pain management for older adults.